ASMARINO – 17 YEARS ONLINE

ASMARINO – 17 YEARS ONLINE

We live in a world where access to information has become one of the essential elements of basic human rights. Without access to a variety sources of information, we are deprived of the opportunities to understand our physical and social environoment and improve our lives.

Asmarino Independent is celebrating its 17th anniversary on this month of August 2014. It has kept its spirit of defiance against the merciless dictatorship that has gradually destroyed the Eritrean society. Through contributions from the wider public and writers – with their articles, analysis, poems and stories – and news feeds from different angles, Asmarino has survived difficult years of informing Eritreans and those interested in Eritrean issues with the hope that it will somehow bring about constructive engagements and the long overdue changes in Eritrea.

In all these years, Asmarino was and still is on the side of the disadvantaged, the imprisoned, the persecuted, the forgotten and voiceless Eritreans. It has been working in collaboration with Eritreans and friends of Eritrea in South Africa, USA, Europe, Eritrea and other parts of the world. It launched Radio Delina – we want our rights – and still continues to transmit programmes on Eritreans issues despite all the difficulties and inconveniences it had to overcome over the years.

On its 17th anniversary, Asmarino hopes the suffering of the Eritrean people will come to an end. It has covered the news and exposed the endless and gruesome events – the shooting of innocent civilians in Adi Abeyto, the drowning of hundreds of Eritreans near Lampeduza and the Mediterranean, of those who are perishing in the Sahara and Sinai desert, of those who are victims of human trafficking and organ-harvest, of those forgotten prisoners in Eritrea and the pain and suffering parents are still going through to this day.

Asmarino’s mission was and still is to raise awareness among Eritreans and the wider public on critical Eritrean social and political issues so as to have clarity of understanding and make an informed decision on various matters of Eritrean concern. It is committed to stop the rape of a nation, the waste of life, the mismanagement of resources and work towards the restoration of law and order to recover the spirit of hope and return to normal and sensible way of life.

Ever since the shutdown of independent media in September of 2001, Eritrea’s troubles escalated to a new level. The lack of , the manipulation and fabrication of information from a government-run media has progressively disabled the Eritrean public capacity to have a clear idea of what exactly is going on a day-to-day basis. It created a society that has become incapable of processing information to the extent that it is being made to work against its own interest. In the course of these 17 years, the suffering Eritreans are going through has reached yet another new level and it demands Asmarino to work much harder than it ever did before. Although it is preparing itself to engage and upgrade, it needs the usual support from its longtime friends and new comers.

Asmarino wouldn’t have made it this far without the support it receives from all kinds of people out there. Thank you to all.